Hershaw, Lafayette McKeene (1863-1945)

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Discuss Negroes Yearly, June 2, 1909

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Birth Date

1863-05-10

Death Date

1945-09-02

Birthplace

Clay County, North Carolina

Biographical Text

Lafayette M. Hershaw studied at Atlanta University, graduating in 1886. In 1892, he graduated from Howard University with a Bachelor of Laws. Hershaw then worked as a teacher and principal at the Gate City School in Atlanta. He was fired after giving a speech in 1889 on how Northern education was higher quality than Southern education, and he went to Washington D. C., where he worked for the U.S. Civil Service as a land examiner in the Department of the Interior. While serving in this position, Hershaw did editorial work for an anti-Roosevelt paper, and in 1907 he was demoted because it was believed he was tarnishing Roosevelt's reputation. However, Hershaw got along with most politicians, and in 1925 he was promoted to Assistant Law Examiner, the highest position held by a Black man in the Land Office at the time. Hershaw was also a supporter of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois, attending many conferences organized by Du Bois and becoming a leader in the movement to improve the conditions of African Americans. In 1901 he was the president of the Pen and Pencil Club, a club of African American journalists and writers. He was also Secretary of the Niagara Movement, a civil rights movement, and he worked on the publication of its magazine The Horizon alongside Du Bois and F. H. M. Murray. Hershaw wrote "The Out-Look" column of the magazine, which focused on the Black experience from the view of whites. When the Niagara Movement declined, Hershaw became a founding member of the NAACP and served as an officer of its D.C. branch. In 1918, he became Chairman of the branch's Executive Committee. He resigned in 1928 after the NAACP began to fight for the end of segregation in the Interior Department, as he worked there and was content with conditions. Hershaw was one of the founders of the Robert H Terrell Law School, opened in 1931. He was also president of the Shiloh Baptist Lyceum in 1902, head of the newspaper bureau of the National Afro-American Council in 1907, President of the Crispus Attucks Association in 1909, treasurer of the American Negro Academy in 1920, and first vice president of the Mu-So-Lit Club in in 1917.

Hershaw married Charlotte Monroe in 1888. They had three daughters together: Rosa Cecile, Alice May, and Fay M. Hershaw died in 1945.

Occupation

Clerk

Journalist

Lawyer

Collection

People

Map

Edited By

Hajo, Cathy Moran

Lichon, Sara Catherine

Rights

Public domain

Gender

Male

First appears

1909

Bibliography and Links

Angela Jones, African American Civil Rights: Early Activism and the Niagara Movement: Early Activism and the Niagara Movement, 2011, p. 222

Who's Who in Colored America, vol. 6, 1942, p. 250

Wikipedia

Citation

“Hershaw, Lafayette McKeene (1863-1945),” Jane Addams Digital Edition, accessed July 26, 2024, https://mail.digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/items/show/2623.